Pages

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Trading Places

Usually when I write a blog entry, I just feel like writing. I don't have a topic in mind. This entry is no different, but that doesn't mean I'm not excited about what I came up with.

10 fictional women I would seriously consider switching places with.

And that's all the introduction you're getting.

1. Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation)

I really love this show. I really love Amy Poehler. I really love Leslie Knope. She's funny, caring, always put together even when she's hallucinating from a crazy bad case of the flu, she can do anything, she loves her jobs, she loves her home, she loves waffles, and she's surrounded by awesome people.

I think I'd be the least hesitant to become Leslie Knope out of any of the women I picked. She kind of has the best life ever. Not to mention the fact that she's married to Ben Wyatt. If I could make the perfect guy, it would be Ben Wyatt. Really, it's uncanny just how much he embodies my ideal.

2. Galadriel(Lord of the Rings)

Even though Cate Blanchett was the absolute perfect choice for Galadriel, I'm going to specify that I want to be book Galadriel and not movie Galadriel. Reason being, Galadriel is way more hands on in the books. Not so much Lord of the Rings, but in other books and the expanded mythology. Pictured above, you see her laying to waste Dol Guldur. This happened during the War of the Ring (events during Return of the King). The elves of Lorien and Mirkwood had been laying siege to Dol Guldur for days and Galadriel just walks up to the gate with arrows flying towards her, gently pushes it open, and proceeds to destroy it before causing trees and flowers to grow. She's pretty badass. She's also basically the matriarch of Elvendom.

As a side note, I contemplated including Eowyn in this list. I love her a lot ("I am no man" gives me chills every time whether I'm reading or watching it), but her fate in the end is to get married after all that talk about wanting to fight. Boar-ring! I love Tolkien, but that doesn't mean the man knew how to write women. Pretty sure killing the Witch-king of Angmar, while CRAZY awesome, wouldn't have filled her sense of adventure so much that she goes back on everything she says she wants.

3. Daenerys Targaryen (A Song of Ice and Fire aka Game of Thrones)

It's true, the first 13 years of her life totally sucked, but once she finds herself and her footing, she's basically the coolest character ever. Or up there at least. She's an exiled queen fighting her way back to her kingdom, and she kind of rocks at it. Pretty much any positive adjective you can think of in a leader is one that describes her.

4. Willow Rosenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

You may be wondering why I didn't choose Buffy. I'll counter that with: would you want that kind of responsibility? Saving the world over and over again. Yeah, she had plenty of help, but ultimately it was Buffy's job and therefore her fault if she didn't stop any number of apocalypses. With Willow, you get power without the fate of the world resting on your shoulders. Except for that one time when she tried to end the world. Then there was that time she saved it... Okay, maybe a bad example, but Buffy was always the leader. I wouldn't want that. Plus if I had to choose between being super strong or being a witch, I'd choose the magic.

5. Rose Tyler (Doctor Who)

I had to pick someone from Doctor Who (for obvious reasons) and I had to pick someone from the David Tennant years (also for obvious reasons). My first choice was Donna, but there's no way I'd want her ending. Martha's too mopey so that leaves Rose. As far as companions go, she's not bad. I like her a lot actually. She was the first companion in the New Who so her being in love with the Doctor wasn't old yet. Plus her progression is pretty awesome. She starts out as a pretty clueless 19 year old and turns out to be the awesome woman you see above. She holds her own next to the Doctor and turns out to be basically his human equivalent in an alternate universe. She's pretty awesome... and I wouldn't say no to a David Tennant clone.

6. Princess Leia Organa (Star Wars)

I don't need to explain this, right? Even if you haven't seen Star Wars (why would you do that to yourself?), anyone born after 1977 intrinsically knows how awesome Leia is.

7. Janet "The Jackal" Colgate (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)

With hair and an outfit like that, who wouldn't want to be Janet? Mostly I want to be the greatest conwoman in Western Europe and con two conmen.

8. Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars)

She's sassy, she's smart, and she looks like Kristen Bell. There's no choice to make here. Granted, the events that play as catalyst to her becoming who she is are terrifying and I wouldn't wish them on anyone, least of all myself, but still. I really do love her so much and being her would rock my socks.

9. Molly Gibson (Wives and Daughters)

All the best women in period pieces are great readers. I felt like I should include a period character because period pieces are awesome. My first instinct was Elizabeth Bennet, but her life isn't all that great when you look at it from a wide lens. She has a mediocre (albiet educational) first 20 years then marries a rich man. She probably spends the rest of her life going to parties, reading, having babies, walking through lavishly furnished rooms and beautiful woods. Granted not all of that sounds half bad, but I'm guessing that kind of lifestyle would get boring after a while. Especially for someone as clever as Elizabeth Bennet.

Enter Molly Gibson. Her first 20ish years are spent comfortably. She reads, learns, gets into science, meets interesting people... it's your basic upper middle class lifestyle for the times. Yes, she still gets married, but after she does that she goes to Africa to study insects with her husband. And she wears pants! In the 1800s! She's wearing pants!

10. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)

Come on, you knew this was coming. I'd probably prefer book Hermione rather than movie Hermione just because I like the books better. Really though, how many times did this girl save the necks of Harry and Ron and countless others? She saved the world and made crazy terrible sacrifices to do so. And she's super smart, which is less of a bonus and more of a requirement for any fictional woman I'd want to trade places with. I feel like that should go for everyone... who would want to be a stupid character?